Kathy Lueders

Kathryn (Kathy) Lueders (pronounced "Leaders") is an American engineer and business manager. Lueders is currently leading NASA's human spaceflight program as the Associate Administrator of the Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate.[1][2] She became the first woman to head human spaceflight.[3] She was previously the program manager for NASA's Commercial Crew Program and oversaw the return of human spaceflight capabilities to NASA.[4]

Kathryn Lueders
Kathryn (Kathy) Lueders NASA Portrait (2014)
NationalityAmerican
EducationB.S. Business Administration in Finance
B.S. and M.S. Industrial engineering
Alma materUniversity of New Mexico
New Mexico State University
EmployerNASA
TitleAssociate Administrator of the Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate

Personal life

In her undergraduate degree, Lueders studied business, as she had had aspirations to work on Wall Street. During her senior year, however, she wanted to switch to an engineering major. After getting married and having children she returned to college and "earned several degrees in engineering."[5]

Education

Lueders earned her bachelor's degree of Business Administration in finance from the University of New Mexico.[6] She also has a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in industrial engineering from New Mexico State University.[6]

NASA career

Lueders began her NASA career in 1992[7] in the propulsion lab at the White Sands Test Facility. As only the second woman to work at the facility,[5] Lueders started as the depot manager of the Space Shuttle program Orbital Maneuvering System and Reaction Control Systems. She has also held several managerial positions within the International Space Station Program Office at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.[7]

She also was responsible for NASA's oversight of international partner spacecraft visiting the space station, including the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s H-II Transfer Vehicle, and the Russian space agency Roscosmos’ Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. She went to Kennedy as the acting Commercial Crew Program Manager in 2013, and was selected as the head of the office in 2014.

In June of 2020, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced Kathy Lueders to be the agency’s new associate administrator of the Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate.[8]

References
  1. Berger, Eric. "NASA's new chief of human spaceflight has a commercial background". Ars Technica. Conde Naste. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  2. "Kathy Lueders Selected to Lead NASA's Human Spaceflight Office". NASA. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  3. "NASA names first woman to head human spaceflight - The Jakarta Post". www.thejakartapost.com. Retrieved 2020-06-13.
  4. "Tech Briefs Interview: NASA's Kathy Lueders - Tech Briefs". Tech Briefs. 1 February 2015. Retrieved 2018-03-23.
  5. Bendiksen, Robert Sullivan, Jonas. "What the Women at NASA Have Planned for the 2030s". Vogue. Retrieved 2018-03-23.
  6. "Kathryn L. Lueders". International Astronautical Federation. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  7. Dean, James (21 April 2014). "NASA names new Commercial Crew Program chief, replaces Mango". Florida Today. Retrieved 2018-04-05.
  8. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/kathy-lueders-selected-to-lead-nasa-s-human-spaceflight-office
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